SHOW:
Cooking With Paris
WHERE TO WATCH:
OUR RATING:
2/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
With an anyone-can-cook attitude, Paris Hilton adds her own flair to every dish. Fun is just one edible glitter bomb away on this unique cooking show.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Cooking With Paris is an absolute mess. But, as sad as I am to say it, I couldn't help but sit and watch the 6-episode cooking show hosted by the absolute last person I'd expect to have a cooking show.
Each episode features one of Paris Hilton's friends, including Kim Kardashian West, Saweetie and Demi Lovato, who help her prepare meals. They then sit down to eat in an elaborately decorated dining room. A pink cookbook bearing a portrait of Paris is where she keeps her recipes, each paragraph a different colour. Needless to say, not all the prepared dishes pan out, and things get very messy at times, but Paris and her guests push through.
It has seemingly become a growing trend for celebs to spend more time in the kitchen, whether they can cook or not, and film it. Unsurprisingly, these shows have been wildly successful. One example is Selena Gomez: Selena + Chef, which has just been renewed for a third season. Cooking With Paris will be no different, but one thing's for sure, nobody is going to watch this to sharpen their culinary skills. These are purely successful because of the celebrity standing in front of the camera and perhaps the novelty of it all. I mean, when I heard Paris would be hosting a cooking show, I immediately set a reminder to watch it.
Regardless of the new entertainment trend and the fact that I couldn't look away, Cooking With Paris confused me slightly. This Is Paris, the YouTube documentary released in September 2020, worked hard to separate the ditzy privilege of Hilton's public persona and the woman she is now; a middle-aged, successful businesswoman. But Cooking With Paris took me right back to 2003 when she and Nicole Richie had teens and young adults glued to their screens as they 'learned how to live with middle-class people' in The Simple Life. The only difference is that she was perhaps more of a rebel back then and added extra ditzy-ness for the ratings. Now, she's just replaced that with well-known faces.
Another element that put me off the show was how little Paris knows about cooking, let alone cooking utensils. Can someone in the 21st century really not understand what the zest of a lemon is or what a whisk looks like? And I am not about to let the fact that she grew up wealthy and privileged with a kitchen full of private chefs pass as an excuse. If it truly is all an act, I feel as though the dumb blonde ship sailed long ago, or maybe my 29-year-old self has just outgrown laughing at women feeling like they need to act clueless. Am I too harsh? Interestingly enough, Paris' signature breathy baby voice disappears when she is distracted, and those moments are the ones I preferred watching.
This all started when Paris uploaded a 15-minute YouTube video in January 2020. The video, called "Cooking With Paris," shows viewers how to make lasagne. Executive producer, Aaron Saidman, saw this as an opportunity to add to his celebrity cooking show repertoire. Still, I just feel like it was a bad investment.
If there is anything that I learned from watching Cooking With Paris, it's how to use the terms 'sliving' aka "slaying it" and "living your best life", and that's about it.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: